The Simple Solution
by lila.crane
Summary: This was originally supposed to pick up at the end of Not Fade Away, and be kind of a sequel to another unfinished story of mine, It's Not Me, It's You. It's basically a setup for a Buffy/Angel/Spike threesome.


Disclaimer: I do not own Angel or Buffy, nor am I in any way affiliated with either show.

A/N: This is basically the precursor to what was going to be a Buffy/Angel/Spike threesome story that never materialized. Originally this was supposed to be a sequel to It's Not Me, It's You, which I never finished, but in which I intended to have Angel and Spike getting "intimate". There's a break after the first few hundred words where I intended to write some tidy solution to the whole hordes of demons problem then provide some logical transition to get Buffy, Angel and Spike into a hotel room (Hyperion, maybe?) together. I never did that part either. So really it's just some talking. Sorry.

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Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illyria stood in the alley facing the oncoming army of demons and monsters charging towards them.

"Let's go to work" Angel said as he raised his sword. He swung, but before he made contact with anything a semi-translucent white barrier appeared in front of him. His sword hit it and ricocheted off, throwing him back a few steps. The hordes of demons on the other side ran into the barrier and began banging on it in a futile effort to break through.

Angel and Spike looked at each other in confusion then looked back at the barrier.

"You guys throw an apocalypse and you don't invite me. I'm disappointed," a familiar voice chimed from behind them.

Everyone spun around to see Buffy standing before them, hands on hips, with a sly grin on her face. Willow stood next to her casually holding her hands in the air to keep the barrier in place. Andrew and Dawn hovered close behind them.

Gunn looked up to see that barrier was a dome surrounding all of them in the alley. As he turned, Buffy could see the blood still oozing from his stomach.

"Hey Will, think you can do something about that injury," Buffy turned to ask Willow.

"No problemo." Willow threw one hand nonchalantly in Gunn's direction. "Hey Charles, that any better?"

Gunn tentatively poked at his stomach. "Um, yeah, all better. Thanks Willow."

Illyria stared at Willow in disbelief. "What kind of god is this?"

All the while, Spike and Angel had been staring at Buffy, too shocked to move, mouths hanging open in disbelief. Buffy only giggled as she watched them.

"What, no hello from either souled vampire ex-boyfriend? Geez, maybe I shouldn't have bothered to crash this apocalypse," she finally said.

Angel looked at the ground, ashamed of his failure to properly greet the love of his life. Spike continued to stare, mouth agape.

...

Buffy paced back and forth across the room. Angel and Spike sat on the sofa watching her intently. Finally she stopped and faced them both. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Angel interrupted her.

"The curse is gone and my soul's permanent" he blurted out.

"Huh?" Buffy and Spike stared at him in disbelief. Buffy began opening and closing her mouth as if trying to speak, but no words came out. Spike looked back and forth between Angel and Buffy before his face fell into a mask of complete misery.

"Apparently before Fred died she'd been working on something to anchor my soul to my body permanently. When Wes was going through her stuff afterwards he found it and using her notes, he was able to finish it. He gave it to me yesterday, I guess as a good luck gift or something."

Just as Spike looked up at Angel and began to speak, Buffy cut him off.

"I can't choose between you." She immediately found her hands more interesting than anything in the room. "It's just that..."

"Actually," Angel started in, "Spike and I are sort of...um...together."

Once again Buffy and Spike's heads jerked up to face him. Spike now had a look of wonder on his face. Buffy's face scrunched up as if a hundred different emotions were fighting to get out. Eventually it chose shock, then changed its mind and turned to hurt. Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Mate," Spike finally spoke, making every effort to disguise the pain in his voice. "With the curse gone and all, and...uh...Buffy's here...what I mean is, you don't have to honor this us thing. Besides, I was just getting kicks where I could while I had to be here." He tried to finish off with a smirk, but he only managed something like a grimace.

Angel looked into his face and saw past his last remark. The hurt in Spike's eyes warmed his dead heart. He reached up to caress Spike's cheek.

"It's not about honoring anything. It's about...I love you. I know I never said it before, but it's not because I didn't feel it. I just figured you didn't want to hear it." At those words Buffy was drawn out of her stupor and almost managed a laugh at the irony of that thought. Because of her tearful state it came out more like a sob and caught Angel and Spike's attention.

"Well I knew I wouldn't be able to choose between you," Buffy started as sobs continued to catch in her throat, "but I didn't think it wouldn't even matter." She began to pace back and forth again, looking at the floor and muttering to herself "I love both of them and I think I can't choose between them and I can't walk away from them so maybe I was just going to stand here forever without saying anything, but the joke's on me because I'm not even wanted anymo..."

Just then Spike stood up and grabbed Buffy by the arm. He tried to pull her towards him to comfort her, but she just pulled away and looked up at him with hurt and tears swimming in her eyes. Spike looked at Buffy with concern, then looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back down to face Angel.

"Okay, I've got a couple of thoughts here, so let's just everybody keep their gobs shut while I'm talking and let me finish my piece." He looked from Buffy to Angel and back. Both just stared at him, waiting for him to go on.

"Angel, much as I thought I would never say this in my unlife, I...uh, yeah...I love you too. But I still love Buffy more than...well, not the point. Point is, I know that you do too. I mean, she's the love of your bloody unlife for chrissake. And besides that, I want her to be happy more than I want anything for myself so I think you should just..." As he trailed off he looked off towards the bedroom. Suddenly a sinister smile began to creep across his face. Buffy and Angel both turned and looked towards the bedroom, trying to figure out what had distracted him so completely. Finally Spike turned back towards both of them.

"Well, isn't it just like me to solve the problem with the simple solution?" Now Buffy and Angel were looking at him with such confusion that all other emotions from just minutes ago had been entirely displaced.

"Alright kiddies, put yourselves in Spike's brain for a second. I'm in a room with the two people I love more than anything else and they seem to both love me in return, and each other. And besides that, just being in the same room with the both of them has made me hard as hell." At this he motioned towards his crotch and paused for a moment to see if either of them were getting where he was going with this. They weren't so he continued. "Remember, you're in my brain here. What is my answer to all this going to be?"

Just then Buffy gasped. Spike was rather proud that Buffy was the first one to catch on to where this thought train of his was going. When he looked at her he saw her eyes light up and he was pretty sure she was getting ready to jump on the train with him.

"You mean...?"

Spike nodded. Angel stood up and was looking back and forth between the two of them, still perplexed as to what Spike was getting at.

"With...and...us...from now on?"

Spike nodded again. At this Buffy began to grin and slinked forward towards Spike. When she got there she leaned into him and wrapped an arm around his neck.

"Not a bad plan," she said as she leaned up and kissed him sweetly on the lips.

From behind Buffy, Angel sighed.

"Well, I guess you two...and, uh, I'll leave you..."

"Hold it just a minute mate. You're not getting the whole message here." As Spike spoke he gently pushed Buffy backwards until they had reached Angel and she was now sandwiched between the two of them. Spike reached an arm over Buffy and grasped Angel's shoulder, holding him in place.

Buffy wriggled between them and then turned to face Angel. "Yeah, I think I could get used to this."

Finally, understanding started to sink in. Angel looked back and forth between Buffy and Spike, shock practically exploding out of his face.

"You mean all of us, together? You want this? You both want this?" He settled his shocked face on Buffy who just beamed up at him and wriggled against him again.

Slowly Angel's expression changed from shock to a joy that surely would have unsouled him only days before. Once again he looked back and forth between Spike and Buffy. Spike was busy nuzzling against Buffy's neck and nibbling on her earlobe. Angel reached over Buffy's shoulder and grabbed Spike by the chin. He pulled him closer and kissed him with all the passion and ferocity he could muster in his new state of euphoria.

Buffy whimpered as she was pinned between the two strong, not-at-all soft and cushiony vampires. At the sound Angel released Spike, reached down for Buffy's chin and kissed her gently but with equal passion.

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End file.
